Australia strikes deal with Greens on taxing foreign workers

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia's conservative government struck a deal with a minor party on Thursday on a tax rate aimed at encouraging foreign
travellers
to pick fruit on the nation's farms.

The government and the left-wing Greens party reached a compromise on how much vacationers should be taxed on income earned picking farm produce next year, Greens leader Richard Di Natale said.

The government would not go below a 15
per cent
rate for the so-called backpacker tax while the Greens had asked for 13
per cent
. The compromise involved the government agreeing to take less tax from the
travellers
' compulsory pension contributions, Di Natale said. The government also offered an additional 100 million Australian dollars ($74 million) spending on the environment.

"We have a situation where farmers just simply didn't know whether they were going to be able to collect their fruit or whether it was going to be withering on the vine," Di Natale told reporters.

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce confirmed a deal had been reached with the Greens but provided no details. The breakthrough came on the last day Parliament was to sit for the year.

Australian farmers rely heavily on thousands of young backpackers traversing the Outback to pick their produce each year.

But farmers feared many of these seasonal
labourers
would bypass Australia for countries such as New Zealand when a tax rate of 32.5
per cent
on every dollar earned was to come into force on Jan. 1.

"Farmers can now plan next year's harvest with confidence that they will have a backpacker workforce there to help them harvest their fruit and harvest their crops," said Fiona Simson, president of the National Farmers' Federation, Australia's leading farming group.

Many backpackers currently pay no tax on their earnings because, like Australian residents, they are allowed to earn up to 18,200 Australian dollars ($13,500) before any tax is owed.

But a court ruled last year that that the Australian Tax Office should not treat foreign
travellers
the same as Australian residents. They won't have a tax-free threshold from January.

Many fear that months of uncertainty had already deterred many
travellers
who otherwise might have come to Australia to pick the current summer crops.